Minimalist, Zero Waste Lifestyle, Life Hacker

trash update

I’ve talked about what I don’t buy, but I thought I’d tell you about what I do buy in relation to my daily bathroom routine. When I go grocery shopping, there are items I do keep an eye out for. These items are the items I will use on a daily basis and keep stock of at home. So here it is…

What I stock up on:

Baking Soda

Sunscreen

Toothbrush

Face Moisturizer

Eyeliner (used often)

Mascara (used often)

Eye Shadow (used often)

Lip Balm

Dental Floss

Night Cream

Apple Cider Vinegar

Toilet Paper

Not used often:

Essential oils

Liquid Foundation (Vegan Makeup)

Matte Bronzer (Vegan Makeup)

Lipstick (Vegan Makeup)

Angled Blush Brush

There are other investments that I bought a while back, which did produce some form of trash, but they were only a one time investment.

One time investments:

Cornstarch

Cacao Powder

Crystal Deodorant

Pumice Stone

Set of Dental picks

Set of stainless steel ear pick tools

Morning: Before Workout Routine: In the morning I will wash my face with soap and brush my teeth with baking soda. I’ll then apply sunscreen before heading out, because skin cancer is real and the exposure to the sun’s rays can be very dangerous, so I take precautions.

Morning: After Workout Routine: After working out, I’ll wash my face again and apply some dry shampoo (combination of equal parts cornstarch and Hershey’s Cocoa, here is the link to my blog post about DIY Dry Shampoo). I’ll then apply my makeup, and depending on the occasion, it might be more or less. My makeup is cruelty free and not tested on animals, but it does come in packaging that is not recyclable. The good part about my makeup routine is that I don’t use excessive amounts of it so I don’t use up my makeup quickly.

When I do decide to get more dressed up, my makeup packaging includes all of the following packaging below. All of my makeup will come with the makeup container as well as the makeup packaging as well.

Non-Daily Use Items: There are a few “one time purchase” items that I did invest in, which did produce some form of trash that was not recyclable. However, these were one time purchases and they’ve lasted a very long time. These items include my deodorant crystal, pumice stone, dental pick set and my set of stainless steel ear pick tools. (The Visine is rarely used and I doubt I’ll ever purchase it again.)

For the Bathroom: Products I use to clean my bathroom or need to stock up on, include Apple Cider Vinegar, paper wrapped toilet paper and essential oils. The essential oils does get used, but not often. I always buy toilet paper wrapped in paper so that I don’t produce any extra plastic trash.

Living a zero waste lifestyle can never truly be completely zero waste. Trash will be produced at one point or another; whether it’s in the beginning of the production line or at the very end where the consumer is left with it. When you purchase products in bulk, a lot of the packaging is left for the distributor to deal with.

This post was a transparent view of the reality of my own bathroom trash. Even though I do still produce a bit of trash, I have significantly reduced the amount of my bathroom trash since I began this zero waste journey. Still, to this day, I know I can reduce it even more, but that means I have to give up using certain products or try to find alternative products.

Share this:

Like this:

So here is an update of my trash I’ve produced since the beginning of this year:

Gillette Disposable razor

Clothing tags

Plastic packaging and plumbing tape from a towel rack shelf I installed in the bathroom

A plastic bag from a gift I received from a friend who traveled to Taiwan and brought back Oolong Tea.

Hair ties after the rubber structure broke (I’m still trying to figure out how to contain my hair during workouts so I don’t have to use these)

Fruit Stickers, which was my lack of paying attention to the fruit I bought and brought home.

Dental floss due to the fact that I have round shaped teeth and I have to use dental floss in order to get to the food between the crevasses of my teeth. I wish I didn’t have to, but I have no choice.

Elastic trim sewn into fabric, from making produce bags out of old linen sheets. These pieces are the elastic edges from the fitted sheets, which started to crumbled due to the age of the elastic. These elastic edges were so dry that the interior rubber material started to crumble and became a powder.

Plastic seal, from a Vitamin E facial serum that I used.

Plastic electrical prong covers from two power strips I had purchased.

I should be doing better but I was making a lot of small projects earlier on this year. I kept all of my extra fabric and thread from when I made a bunch of my cloth produce bags so I plan to reuse those materials in the future. Hopefully I’ll be able to produce less trash next year at this time. I’ll have an update of my trash collection in a few months and we’ll see where this pile ends up.

Share this:

Like this:

So I filled out the “About” section of my website yesterday and I know I wrote that I’m trying to live a zero waste lifestyle. I use the word trying because the system isn’t perfect. As we all change and get older, our needs change, whether it be mental needs, health needs or the needs of our loved ones. So this is the trash I’ve accumulated so far in 2016:

I started trying to live a zero waste lifestyle in 2010 and over the years my system became more refined. I found better alternatives for current products I use and even had to opt out of certain products. To give you a better perspective of what I gave up, I made a list: (of what I could remember)

Bathroom In The Past:

Tampons (Tampax)

Scented bedroom spray (Bed Bath & Beyond)

Bug spray for your body (OFF)

Face wash (Clearsil)

Deodorant (Secret Invisible solid)

Toothpaste (Colgate)

Toothbrushes (made of plastic that would end up in the landfill)

Candles (Bed Bath & Beyond)

Band aids (BAND-AID)

Antibiotic ointment (Neosporin)

Nail polish (from wherever)

Nail polish remover (store brand)

Shampoo bottles (Garnier)

Conditioner bottles (Garnier)

Harmful bathroom cleaning sprays (Scrub/409)

Toilet cleaner (Scrubbing Bubbles)

Jewlery cleaning liquid (La Sonic Jewelery Cleaner Concentrate)

Cotton balls (store brand)

Cotton swabs to clean my ears (Q-tips)

Candles (to make the bathrom smell nice)

Fancy body lotions from (Victoria’s Secret)

Face lotion (Neutrogena)

Rubbing alcohol (store brand)

Toilet Paper (Store brand- packaged in plastic)

Make-up (chap stick/lipstick/eye shadow/eyeliner/mascara)

Disposable razors (Gillette)

Dental Floss (Oral-B SuperFloss Dental Floss)

Bathroom During the Present: (Product details can be found under: Store> Store Link)

Vinegar

Toilet paper (wrapped in paper)

Dr. Bronner’s soap bars (which I use for 6 different household cleaning tasks)

Deodorant crystal

Baking Soda

Stainless steel seasoning container (to contain my baking soda)

Compostable toothbrushes

Citrus essential oil

Keeper Moon Cup

Dental floss (ECO-dent)

Bulk lotion

Gauze and paper tape

ALBA Sunblock

Pumice Stone & Wash rag

Sage leaves (I burn sage to release the aroma and use it as a cleansing method )

I think that’s pretty much the entire list. If I’ve left out anything I’ll come back to edit it. This is what my bathroom looks like now:

From the list of items I used to buy, the one criteria I needed each product to pass was the plastic packaging issue. Now I buy items packaged in glass or stainless steel OR paper (and not the glossy kind of paper- just raw paper). I have seen bulk soap sold in stores, but they always have a sticker price tag attached to them, which is not recyclable. I use my Dr. Bronner’s soap for cleaning my bathroom, as a body wash, as a face wash, pet shampoo, laundry detergent, and dish washing soap. With the amount of use I get from one bar of soap, I think this investment pays for itself. I now only use candles in my emergency kit in case of a power outage. My list also was tested with the help of another blog called “The Zero Waste Home” with Bea Johnson and her family. I followed a majority of what she suggested but there were a few that I did not agree with. If you want to check them out, here is the link The Zero Waste Home

There are a few hang ups with this system that still doesn’t make it completely 100% zero waste, such as sunblock and make up. However I did discover a company called TerraCycle who will let you mail them certain trash to be reused into other items as long as you join one of their brigades. Check them out here TerraCycle- Outsmart Waste Currently I’m on their wait list for their Personal Care and Beauty Brigade.